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I used the phrase "charge port" to refer to an AC wall outlet and many people around me hadn't heard that expression before.

We are all Californians here, but my parents are from the East Coast of the US and before that India, so I was wondering if I picked it up from them?

k_g
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  • Hello, k_g. What does a Google search seem to suggest? Do dictionaries include the term? – Edwin Ashworth Mar 16 '18 at 22:41
  • I did a Google Search and it appears to be a thing: 755k results with quotes – k_g Mar 16 '18 at 22:47
  • Can't find it in dictionaries though – k_g Mar 16 '18 at 22:48
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    I've looked at the first 10 hits only for "charge port"; if you slog through the first 100 say you will get a better picture of how often the term is used in the way you mention (in the UK, a 'plug socket'). I can't find a single relevant picture on a Google Images search. The fact that you can't find a dictionary mention probably implies it's a regionalism. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 16 '18 at 22:53
  • Charging port seems to be more common, 5M+ Google results, and looking on Google Images seems to indicate this is mostly used to refer to the port or socket in which the charger cable is inserted in mobile devices, e.g. the micro-USB port on a tablet. – JJJ Mar 17 '18 at 00:15
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    An AC power outlet (240 volts in the UK) isn't used directly to charge anything in my experience, it's a power socket into which chargers are plugged but which can also be used for mains devices like lamps, TV sets, irons, kettles and high wattage space heaters. There are some socket faceplates on the market now which have one or two USB sockets with transformer and rectifier built in so that battery driven devices can be charged directly from them but I would say that it was the USB socket which was the charge port, not the whole faceplate with the AC socket. – BoldBen Mar 17 '18 at 00:31
  • @BoldBen that's also not very clear, do you mean the USB socket on the wall (i.e. the side where the power is available) or do you mean the USB port on the device? I'm guessing you mean the wall part, because you use socket, but I'm not entirely sure.. – JJJ Mar 17 '18 at 08:01
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    @JJJ The socket built into the power socket faceplate, which was why I contrasted it with the whole faceplate with the AC socket (and USB ports which I did not say explicitly). The OP is asking about the use of "charge port" to refer to an AC socket which I think is incorrect as an AC socket can be used for many more purposes in addition to charging devices. You could refer to a USB port (or even a co-axial or other socket) on a device as a "charge port" but that would not be in the context of the question. – BoldBen Mar 18 '18 at 10:12

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It seems to be an American term, rather than a British one. When looking for ngrams in the English and American English corpus there are similar results.

When looking at the British English corpus, however, it does not find anything. Google's Ngram Viewer returns: No valid ngrams to plot! The same goes for the English Fiction corpus.

JJJ
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